Way forward for Quality Education Fund
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The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee:
Chairman of the Quality Education Fund (QEF) Steering Committee Mr Pang Yiu-kai today (February 11) announced the outcomes of the reviews on the QEF and the way forward for the fund.
The QEF has recently completed an Impact Study. Key findings are as follows:
1. The study shows that QEF is having a positive impact on teachers and schools, including teachers' teamwork spirit and sharing culture, efficacy, job satisfaction, attitude towards change and new ideas and professionalism, as well as school management and teaching and learning;
2. The greater number of QEF projects undertaken by schools, the greater the impact of QEF on teachers and school. The impact was generally higher for schools with total QEF funding in the region of $600,000 to $1 million;
3. The impact of QEF is not confined to having a particular project. The impact of QEF goes further, by changing teachers' attitude and behaviour and school's culture, which in turn will have more significant and lasting impact on teaching and learning; and
4. Principals and teachers of schools visited in general had favourable views on projects undertaken by non-school institutions. These projects provided a platform for teachers to interact with stakeholders of non-school institutions.
Based on the conclusion and recommendations of the QEF Impact Study, and the review of the application and administration of the Fund in the 2007-2008 school year as well as the feedback from the education sector, the fund has resolved to progress towards four objectives - to encourage large-scale applications for QEF with extensive impact on the school sector from potential applicants; to encourage small-scale applications from schools to meet the specific needs of schools; to continue to explore priority themes to address the prevailing needs of school education; and to enhance dissemination and commercialisation of quality project deliverables.
The QEF will take heed and introduce new priority themes for QEF applications on April 1 with a view to promoting innovative projects to enhance the quality of education. The existing priority themes and new themes are combined and re-classified into nine priority themes for application. The six new priority themes for application are 'Effective Learning and Teaching of Languages', 'Assessment for Learning', 'Educational Exchange', 'National Education', 'Healthy Lifestyle' and 'Effective School Management'. The three existing priority themes, namely, 'Wellness Programmes for Teachers', 'Review of School Administrative Work' and 'Use of New Technology for School Administrative Work' will continue to be open for application.
Apart from these priority themes, applicants can apply to undertake innovative projects that meet the needs of schools or enhance the quality of school education. As a token to encourage needy students to participate in learning activities of approved QEF projects, the arrangement of providing full or partial sponsorship to such students is to continue.
Details of the application rules will be uploaded to the QEF website (http://qef.org.hk/) on April 1. A series of briefing sessions will be organised at the end of April to familiarise potential applicants with the priority themes and the application rules.
The QEF processed 648 applications in the 2007-08 school year among which 503 applications were approved involving a total grant amounting to about $143.8 million. A total of 493 approved applications were made under the fund's designated themes. The grants approved in this school year ranged from about $13,000 to $5,683,800.
The QEF was established in 1998 with capital of $5 billion to support community initiatives that promote quality education in Hong Kong. Since its establishment, the fund has supported about 7,300 applications with grants amounting to around $3.6 billion. The balance of the fund, pending audit review, at the end of November 2008 was about $5.42 billion.